Midsummer Mush

Scoutmaster Charley Chase leads his troop of cubs on a camping trip with the Ranch Boys, Betty Mack and her girlfriends in this short comedy.

It's Miss Mack's first appearance as Charley's leading lady, and she has a lot more to do than his previous one, who had gone back to MGM, her home studio. Miss Mack (her real name... well her given name was Idalene, but there's some dispute whether she was Idalene Thurber or Idalene Nepomuck) is probably best remembered for being in SON OF KONG. She's pretty good here, with a cute voice and plenty of attitude, and some decent chemistry with Charley.

It's not among his best shorts. Most of the gags seem to involve variations on having Charley fall into the lake they are camping by. As a technical issue of comedy, it's interesting, although you may be a bit tired of the gag by the end.

You've got to love the Charley Chase laugh. He kind of throws his head back, his mouth opens and he softly sighs, `haaaaa haaaaaaaaa!' Charley and his troop of trusting scouts navigate the wilds of city sidewalks and traffic jams until he literally falls for pretty Betty Mack. She nearly knocks him down while driving past him when she puts out her arm to signal a turn. But since she was holding an ice cream cone, Charley is soon eating out of her hand. (haaaa haaaaaaa) Multiple merit badge Charley tries to assist a traffic cop with his scoutmaster's whistle but all he seems to do is to cause car-crashing congestion. He soon decides maybe the troupe could get to the country quicker if they rented bicycles. The only problem is, he does not know how to ride! After many failed attempts, Betty gives Charlie a lift to the vast country and everything seems fine until Charley falls into the lake. Before he can get completely dry, someone or something causes him to fall in again and again. One cute bit has him sprung out of a hammock through the air and into the water. Another great gag is when Charley is trying to woo his girl by singing and playing an accordion after they both get soaked. The accordion, having entered the lake with him, now squirts the lovebirds in the face when he hits the high notes!

Charley Chase plays a scoutmaster in Midsummer Mush who's trying to get his troop out to Idlewild which before it was an airport was quite a lovely piece of green back in the day. This short two reel comedy is about his adventures getting there as well as what happens at the camp site.

Unfortunately the beginning sequences of the film involving Charley in the city leading his young charges a lot funnier than what happens in the later adventures. Charley manages to make life miserable for a certain traffic cop played in Edgar Kennedy slow burn fashion by Eddie Baker. The traffic jam he causes trying to help the cop is a riot.

While dealing with the cop Charley also finds the lovely Betty Mack heading to Idlewild and after that he's not too worried about his Scouts since his mind's on her. But let's just say his attempts at courtship fall short of the mark. Inspector Clousseau could have done better.

Midsummer Mush is a good two reel comedy from Hal Roach Studios which might have been better if the traffic business had been at the end instead of the beginning.